Amit Sumal - Chehera (Out Now)

Born and bred in Glasgow, Scotland, Amit was introduced to the world of music through his father, a genuine music lover. Realising his son had a good grasp of music, Amit was introduced to his first music teacher at the tender age of six, from whom he started to learn Western Classical Piano. A few years later as Amit's piano playing was progressing he commenced training in his second instrument, the Voilin.

During this period, Amit was also formally introduced to Indian music by his Glaswegian Guru ji, Vijay Kangutkar who taught him the Tablas. Besides playing the Tablas, Amit also gives Vijay credit for being the first person to discipline him in ‘riyaz’ techniques (Indian music patterns of practice), which he found extremely useful and now uses for his singing.

As a teenager, Amit gained a reputation for being a local musician and accompanied various artists during concerts and mehfils. It wasn’t until the age of 18 that Amit started to take interest in Hindi sangeet and began singing. Initially, Amit was very shy and wouldn’t even let his family hear him sing but was encouraged by people who had heard him and was told to consider singing as a career choice. Amongst the people who encouraged him was Vips, the owner of VIP Records!

Still too young to take his life seriously, Amit decided to keep his singing as a hobby but began to broaden his knowledge of Indian film songs. The more he listened, the more he became a fan of a wide range of great Indian singers, like Mohd Rafi Sahib, Udit Narayan and Jagjit Singh ji. After completing his further education, Amit started taking music more seriously and went to India on a number of occasions to gain a deeper understanding of Indian Classical music.

During this time, Amit stayed in Pune (a city near Mumbai) where he accumulated most of his singing skills from a very devoted and immensely talented, knowledgeable gentleman called Mr Gadgil. In Mumbai, Amit had the privilege of learning from Ustad Dilshad Khan and Begum Praveen Saltana; two of the most respected names globally in Indian classical music.

As well as vocal training, Amit took advantage of the fact that he was in India and also learnt to play some raags with a rare Indian instrument called the Sarod, from Pandit Shekhar Borkar who is yet another well respected guru ji and Amit says he is forever indebted to him.